1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dental instruments for picking teeth and massaging gums. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a tooth brush having a handle wherein the end thereof is provided with an oral hygiene member having a tapered, variably flexible tooth pick and an adjacent gum massager.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that for proper oral hygiene, the teeth and adjacent gum tissues must be maintained clean. Further, in order for the gums to be healthy, it is important to provide massage stimulation thereto in order to promote blood circulation, improve tissue softness and suppleness, and encourage the gums not to recede.
For persons suffering from dental disease, such as gingivitis and periodontal disease, it is very important to maintain a strict regiment of tooth and gum care in order to arrest further effects of the disease and promote healing. However, in order for an individual to be able to effectively and conveniently accomplish such a regimen it is necessary to use exactly the proper dental instrument therefor.
Although an individual may use his or her finger as a gum massager, this is not desirable. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, there is too great a danger that the individual's finger nail will accidentally abrade the gum tissue, thereby introducing additional gum tissue injury and further potential for infection. Secondly, the finger used (usually the index finger) is, for many people too large to effectively massage gum tissue. Thirdly, an individual's fingers are generally too contaminated with infectious substances to be safely placed in the mouth on a regular basis. Thus, it is impractical, unwise and unsafe for an individual to use a finger to massage his or her gums. Accordingly, a dental instrument is needed which facilitates gum massage without any of the problems associated with finger usage.
U.S. Design 296,271 discloses an example of a class of toothbrush in which the distal end of the handle is provided with a cone shaped dental pick constructed of an elastomer material such as rubber. Such cones project perpendicularly with respect to a flat side of the handle and are typically about one-half inch in length. This dimensional relationship is bulky and makes handling of the toothbrush handle awkward for brushing and limits movements of the cone within the mouth to adequately pick between teeth and probe the gum line, especially when the tongue and the cheek are involved in accessing these locations.
The cone shaped dental pick is not well suited to penetrate between teeth, since the apex portion of the cone is so flexible that it is unable to provide sufficient mechanical support for the tip to penetrate in an effective and useful manner unless the tip is precisely aligned at ninety degrees to the selected space between the teeth. This alignment requirement can result in great frustration for the user to attain, especially because of the aforementioned bulk associated with the handle and cone structure.
While the cone and handle structure can be used to probe between teeth and at the gum line, an additional disadvantage to this cone and handle structure is its inability to properly massage the gums. When using the cone for this purpose, the smallness of the apex of the cone serves to confine its gum contact to very localized portions of the gum which may result in irritation or injury to the gum tissue, especially if it is already inflamed.
A further disadvantage of the cone and handle structure is associated with the fact that there is insufficient clearance to keep the handle from contacting the lip area when the cone is used around the front side of the teeth, or the lower teeth area when the cone is used around the back side of the teeth.
Yet another disadvantage of the cone and handle structure is associated with the fact that since the cone projects outwardly from the flat side of the handle, the aperture of conventional toothbrush holders which are pre-sized to accommodate toothbrush handles, cannot accommodate the handle with the cone. Therefore, users frequently place their cone equipped toothbrushes on unsanitary surfaces, thereby enhancing their risk of oral infection.
Accordingly, what is needed is a dental instrument, particularly such an instrument equipped on a toothbrush, which provides excellent tooth picking function, gum line probing, and gum massage.